| Project/Area Number |
11670611
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Neurology
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| Research Institution | Tekyo University School of Medicine |
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Principal Investigator |
SAKURAI Masaki Dept of Physiol, Teikyo Univ. Sch of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (30162340)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2000
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
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| Keywords | Slice culture / Coculture / Corticospinal tract / Cerebral cortex / Spinal cord / Synapse formation |
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| Research Abstract |
In order to study biological properties of the corticospinal tract, we have reconstructed this system in an in vitro slice culture preparation. Motor cortex and spinal cord slices, prepared from newborn rats, were co-cultured on pored membranes for 16-24 days. Anterograde labeling with biocytin showed that substantial neural connections had formed between the cortex and spinal cord slices. Retrograde labeling with HRP or DiI demonstrated that the parent cells were located primarily in the deeper layer of the cortex, as is found in vivo. Stimulation of the deep layer of the cortex elicited extracellular postsynaptic responses and intracellular excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in the co-cultured spinal cord that were mediated by the AMPA/KA type glutamate receptor. The intracellular injection of biocytin after EPSPs were recorded showed that one-third of these cells were large stellate cells, which are thought to be motoneurons, while a large portion of the remaining labeled cells were bipolar cells of smaller sizes Using this reconstructed in vitro preparation, we recorded field EPSPs (fEPSPs) along a 100 μm-interval lattice in the spinal gray matter, which allowed the quantitative evaluation of synapse formation. The fEPSP amplitudes were more than two-fold larger when the forelimb cortex was co-cultured with cervical cord rather than lumbar cord. However, hindlimb cortex did not show this preference. The fEPSP amplitudes were more than twice as large when the dorsal side of the spinal cord was adjacent to the cortex than the ventral side. In summary, we have reconstructed the corticospinal projection and synapses in vitro using cortical and spinal explants. This system allows for an efficient quantitative evaluation of synapse formation and for studies of postsynaptic cells. Our results suggest that synapse formation shows preferences along and perpendicular to the neuraxis of the spinal cord.
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